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| Budget cuts leads to this! |
I had heard some good things about Daniel Sullivan's Inspecting Carol, written and produced on the Seattle Rep's stage in 1991. If you recall at that time, Jesse Helms was going on the attack to cut funding from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). The Play tells the tale of how ARTS Organizations were (and still are) struggling and had to jump over the hoops to change from traditional to Experimental to Contemporary.
Now that 'Inspecting Carol' has returned to the SRT Stage, the play still had to change with the times. When I heard of the plot, I assumed it would be like the Classic Michael Frayn Farce, 'Noises Off'. However 'Carol' really isn't in the same league. It is clearly a Parody of 'A Christmas Carol' with a silly behind the scenes story thrown in.
Inspecting Carol is a behind-the-scenes farce about a financially-strapped third-rate theater company struggling to put on its annual, woeful production of A Christmas Carol. Rehearsals come to a full stop when an out-of-town actor shows up to audition for the production and is mistaken by the troupe’s director for an evaluator from the National Endowment for the Arts.
As Inspecting Carol opens, everything about The Soapbox Theater’s Christmas Carol is going wrong. The sets are falling apart, the costumes are smelly and don’t fit, the egomaniac who plays Scrooge is trying to rewrite the play (the previous year he performed his part entirely in Spanish) and the newly hired black actor — the director’s feeble attempt at a multicultural cast — can’t get anyone to help him rehearse his lines. Worst of all, the company is on the verge of collapse (it’s dangerously close to losing its NEA funding) and only managed to secure half of their expected subscribers — the company’s bread and butter.
“Director” Zorah Bloch is on the verge of a breakdown when an untalented would-be actor named Wayne Wellacre shows up. She assumes he’s the NEA inspector in disguise and decides to allow him not only to join the cast, but to make ridiculous changes to Dickens’ script. Eventually the real NEA evaluator appears to watch the disaster of a production.
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| Krich (center) stole the show |
Gretchen Krich (Zora) was a Class act, as well as Ian Bell (Larry), the character of Wayne was annoying, but the actor (Stephen Hando) did his best with his over the top dialogue. The updated twist was the inclusion of Racial Diversity in Casting (Think 5th Avenue's controversial choice of Jud Frey in Oklahoma) with the lone Black actor, playing various roles, making light of affirmative Action casting.
The Best part was when the actual production of 'Christmas Carol' was being played out with the forgotten lines, set falling apart, emergency casting. The Play is good enough to get the Classic Dickens aspect to the audience, and modern and contemporary to appeal to the ever changing modern and commercial audience.
Inspecting Carol, Seattle Repertory Theater, 155 Mercer St., Seattle, through December 23. Tickets $15-80 and are available at the box office, by phone 206-443-2222 or toll-free at 877-900-9285, or online at www.seattlerep.org.
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